Anchorage Daily News Editorial Page Editor on Palin campaigning for Chambliss

[snowbear]

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Alaska Notebook: Palin's Georgia pal
Posted by Matt Zencey, editorial page editor
Anchorage Daily News

Comments (453) | Recommended (309)


by Matt Zencey

Gov. Sarah Palin is putting her conservative Republican fame to work in Georgia, stumping for Republican U.S. Sen. Saxby Chambliss, who is in a tough runoff for re-election.

I wonder if she knows the true measure of the man she is eagerly helping.

Chambliss was elected to the Senate in 2002 by running one of the most reprehensible campaigns of modern times. He was up against incumbent Democrat Sen. Max Cleland, a Vietnam War veteran who lost both legs and his right arm to a grenade during that conflict.

Chambliss avoided serving in Vietnam. He got four student draft deferments, and when his number finally came up, he was medically disqualified with knee troubles.

In the best Karl Rove fashion, Chambliss the draft-evader attacked Cleland the war hero for being soft on terrorism. Distorting Cleland’s votes about workplace rules for the new Homeland Security Department employees, Chambliss portrayed him as a tool of terrorists like Osama bin Laden.

Here’s how the Almanac of American Politics (2006) described it:
“Chambliss ran an ad, much attacked in the press, showing pictures of Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein and Max Cleland, and saying that Cleland 'voted against the President’s vital homeland security efforts 11 times.’” (Those “vital homeland security efforts” Cleland opposed were intended to strip homeland security employees of union rights and other workplace protections.)

The man who couldn’t bring himself to serve in the military said a man who left three limbs behind in war was a weakling who would turn the country over to terrorists.

Chambliss was a congressman during the 9-11 attacks. Congressional Quarterly’s “Politics in America 2006” noted that Congressman Chambliss “quipped that one route to security would be for local sheriffs to 'arrest every Muslim that comes across the state line.’”

So there you have the fine American that Palin is trying to re-elect to the U.S. Senate.

Gov. Palin’s eldest joined the Army and has been deployed to Iraq. As a justifiably proud military mom, she might ask herself why she is using her conservative star power to support such a reprehensible Republican chicken hawk.

— Matt Zencey

http://community.adn.com/adn/node/135064#none

Kudos to Matt Zencey - Anchorage Daily News! ~~~~

[donco6]

1. Wow! That's gonna leave a mark.

Good editorial.

[predfan]

2. Matt, Matt, Matt, don't you understand?

Just being Republican trumps all else, in another Republican's eyes.

[political_Dem]

3. I agree. Republicans put party first above country.

Besides, Chambliss' record doesn't even make Palin blink. That should say a lot about Sarah and her politics. They are cut from the same cloth in many ways, are they not?

Didn't the interview in front of a turkey slaughterhouse give anyone a clue? :sarcasm:

[merh]

5. She couldn't answer Couric's question about McCain's record

"I'll get back to ya"

Of course she doesn't know Chambliss' record, she doesn't care. It is just another stage for her to stand upon and spout her talking points, ya betcha.

[MrModerate]

4. Excuse me, but regardless of whether Chambliss is a piece of shit or not . . .

"Student deferment" and "draft evasion" are not synonymous.

[me b zola]

8. They are synonymous when you question someone's valor in combat

JMO

[MrModerate]

9. Which is not what Chambliss did . . .

He accused the post-Viet Nam Cleland of being soft on terrorism. Bullshit, of course, and disrespectful of the service and sacrifice Cleland had made, but irrelevant to the draft evader/student deferment issue.

There is nothing dishonorable about student deferments, except in the sense that any kind of draft system is (perhaps) inherently immoral in that it plucks people out of their communities to drop them into wars in which they die. Or maimed. Or are induced to commit crimes against humanity.

Chambliss is not a draft evader. He's something much worse: a chickenhawk, a much lower form of life than a draft evader or deferred student. Hypocrisy and cowardice in the same package.

[me b zola]

10. Well, I will politely disagree

I agree that the simple act of receiving a deferment does not make a person a draft evader. But Chambliss did much more than just accuse Cleland of being soft on terrorism, he ran an ad equating Cleland with terrorists. In addition, when bush*/republicans/527s ran ads questioning Cleland's service Chambliss did not object--he was complicit.

There is nothing wrong with a student deferment or in being a conscientious objector. But then when you use that saving grace to become a chicken hawk, to revel in sending others into combat, and on top of that sully the name of a person who served honorably and gave much, then you enter the zone of being called the lowest scum on earth and are opened up to being called anything a person can think of.

[MrModerate]

12. "Scum" works for me . . . n/t

[me b zola]

13. I knew that we would find a place to agree!

:toast:

[roguevalley]

14. I remember at the time they were thought to be the same. I also remember

that at the time no one held it against you because everyone wanted out. Now, however, it is held bitterly because so many of the bastards have become super patriots with flags waving out of every
orifice.

RV, who is old and remembers things.

[rhett o rick]

6. She don't give a rusty stump about no Chambliss. She is running for president. nm

[JimGinPA]

7. Excellent Editorial

K&R

[Danger Mouse]

11. Chambliss is scum.